Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Coop Comes to Visit - A Good Time Is Being Had By All

I am really busy today helping Heather babysit our new cousin, Cooper who will be three months old tomorrow. Coop is no problem to take care of. He's a sweet baby with a good disposition....and a crib. I'm just sayin'. The hard part of today is keeping up with Bailey the Almost Four Year Old. Heather is concentrating on the baby, while I hobble around "chasing" after Bailey. She's being a little toot and I feel like slappin' a knot on her head so tall she'll have to tiptoe to scratch it, but she can outrun me and later on down the road, she'll have considerable input into deciding what nursing home I'll end up in, so I can't be too mean to her. Dammit. :)

Uncle Tobe and Coop...some day.

Back to Cooper...Coop and I are already good buddies, so I am really looking forward to the day when he can do "big kid" stuff. When that time comes, I have a feeling that we'll be on the water a lot, looking for the "Big One That Got Away From the Ordinary Fisherman". You know that Fish. Fear. Me. After I pass on my fishing knowledge to Coop, he'll be known as Fish. Fear. Me. Too. I'll have him t-shirt made up that has that written on it. I know I am probably sounding like I'm Coop's Daddy, but I just love the boy and want to teach him lots of things about fishing and camping and gardening. Besides, Coop has a fine young man for Dad, so being Uncle Toby (even though he's technically my cousin) is just fine with me. He'll be like a third son to me for sure, but he'll also be kind of a Rent-A- Kid. I get him for the day, have all the fun we can possibly have, wind him up like a cheap clock from Family Dollar Store, then send him back home to Mommy and Daddy. See? The shit works out right. :)

In spite of all the joy that Coop brings into our lives when he gets to visit us, there is some backlash. Every time the boy leaves to go home to his parents, Heather tells me how much she'd like to have another baby, hoping it would be a son. Look, I love kids and kids love me; it's always been that way. I guess they can see the "Big Kid" in me. I am blessed that way. I hope it buys me a few Bonus Points with the Lord. Hear that up there, Lord? But, I digress. So, when Coop leaves to go home later today, I'll hear "Let's have another baby" like it's being played on a loop. Then I remind Heather of my considerable age advantage over her. She's only a few years older than my Number 1 Son. Enough said.

I guess, I'd better get back to Cooper, I've got a mess of redneck ways to teach the boy before I'm too old to do it. In the meantime, if anything Update Worthy crops up, I'll chime in and let you know all about it.

I gotta go now. I have to have a conversation with the Lord about those Bonus Points.